The present invention relates to an improved apparatus for batch treatment of textile materials of natural, artificial or synthetic origin or their mixtures, in the form of broad width and loomed materials, including meshed or woven fabrics, non-woven fabrics, cloths, carpets, and so forth.
The word "treatment" as used herein includes all the operations in aqueous media or in organic solvent applied to textile materials, such as degreasing, desizing, removal of marking dyes, dyeing, and also the subsequent operations which follow thereafter, such as drying, greasing, water-proofing, fire-proofing, anti-static treatment, and so forth.
Also, the term "treatment fluid" as used herein includes all the liquid or gaseous fluids constituting the baths for treatments, such as degreasing, dyeing, drying, and so forth. It is known that, when textile materials such as broad cloths are treated on long beams, it is necessary to press strongly the spires of the fabric and impose to the treatment bath very high pressures. It is necessary, indeed, to obtain a complete impregnation of the textile mass and to treat the entirety of the piece of fabric in an homogeneous manner.
For this type of treatment, there is employed, for example, an apparatus comprising an enclosed vessel equipped along its axis with a perforated cylinder, having discs or flanges at its ends, to form a bobbin, on which the textile material is wound and through which a forced circulation of treatment bath is provided.
When delicate and/or compressible textiles are treated, such as jerseys or carpets, the fabrics cannot be rolled up in closely wound layers, because this would result in an unacceptable deformation of the fabric. But when the treatment bath is drawn off after treatment, the liquid is accumulated in the lower part of the textile bobbin, which leads to crushing and elongation, and deformation of the higher part of the spires. Moreover, it is clear that the moisture contents in the upper and lower parts of the bobbin are greatly different. A deformation of the textile may also occur during the treatments.
On the other hand, when baths comprising organic solvents are used, it is necessary not to effect, for safety reasons, manipulations of pieces of textiles, so long as these contain a considerable quantity of solvent. Therefore, the successive operations of treatment, including drying, are effected in the same enclosed vessel. If these operations are effected in an apparatus, such as described hereinabove, comprising a simple perforated cylinder, and if the mass of fabric includes differences of moisture contents, as has been shown, an irregular drying is obtained.
We have now invented an apparatus, which obviates the recited disadvantages as it prevents the deformation of textile materials and permits their treatment in an homogeneous and regular manner. It is particularly adapted for treatment of delicate and/or compressible textiles and for the realization of operating cycles comprising at least a step in which an organic solvent is employed. This apparatus is nevertheless usable for any type of textile material and for treatments with any type of liquid or gaseous fluid, by reason of the improvements it provides.
It is, accordingly, an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for the batch treatment of textile materials which does not have the disadvantages of the prior art.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for the treatment of textiles which prevents deformation of the textiles.